Tag: work

Paradise lost

Do they work at Paradise? Hm? Who knows?

My paradise is my library. The librarians, my colleagues, don’t let me work (outside its walls)! Monday and Wednesday, my hours there are 9.15 am-12.15 am; the other days it’s 15.00-18.00. Such a schedule blocks any option that could bring me some money, in addition to 250 euros I’ll have by the end of the month or 500 euros by the end of October from the library.

Maaaaaany families have contacted me recently asking if I could be a babysitter for their kids and take them home from their schools every day after 4 pm. NO, said the librarians, we can’t change your time we need you here around 6 pm to put the books on their shelves. One family lives just in 10 minutes walk from my work, and the kids’ school is even closer, in 2 minutes! Hmm… it’s complicated… We need you here, say the librarians. They don’t care.

They don’t care that this month I won’t have 670 euros to pay the rent. Nobody cares that 2 babysitting sessions planned for tomorrow and for the last Wednesday were cancelled by the family ’cause it’s grandma who’s with G. (I could get 100 euros). Who cares that I haven’t buy anything to eat since the beginning of the week. So, I saved around 15 euros, that’s my tiny victory:)

So, my strictly inflexible work schedule at the library does not allow me to work elsewhere, especially as a babysitter, which is much easier to find though than any other job thanks to my status of ‘extreme‘-foreign (non EU) student. I already search through the internet: “where to eat for free in Paris”, and I find. It’s not totally free, but should I try something tomorrow?

Take care and do not hesitate to share your own survival hacks!

Bisous! (Kisses! – fr.)

Life is a story

31 May 2019, my contract as a touristic agent at the château de Versailles came to its end. What happened after? 3 months of research on Hippocrates and of pure happiness of a free, liberated human being.

16 September, one week ago, I started to work again for one library (Gernet-Glotz / GG) dedicated to the sciences of Antiquity. The contract is for two months, just 15 hours per day and only 500 net euros per month, but these days I couldn’t believe I was back to the library. The difference between two jobs – tourstic agent and librarian – is huge, they’re like earth and heaven, so last week I was at heaven. It is not only quiet and you don’t need to communicate with thousands of angry, arrogant, barbarous, asking too many questions people all day long, but also it gives you some time to continue your work on your post-doc thesis.

The librarians have their lunch at the INHA restaurant. Not just them of course, but all the staff of all the research units and institutions in and around. So once upon a time (last Thursday) I came there, looked back and saw one of my ex-colleagues from Versailles! What a surprise! Such a small world! This guy from Columbia was one of the most amiable in our team, he always seemed to me to be the most fragile and most suffering from Versailles. Now he is here. And me, I’m here too.

– S., what are you doing here?

– And you?

– I’m a proud librarian!

– So am I!

I aksed my colleagues sitting at another table to excuse me, I’d rather have a lunch with my old friend S.

So we ate and talked, talked and ate…

I was so excited by this funny coincidence 🙂

Good job!

May 13, 2019. Monday

Three days of giving and taking the audios, of saying same words and phrases thousands times, of gathering and lifting up the guides on our shoulders from here to there, up and down, far and closer, of cleaning and putting the machines into the chargers.

Three days of waking up at 6 a.m. and coming back home after 8 p.m.

Hoarse voice, anger, but also some jokes, and also good jokes. Jokes and laughter save us. The sameness of the routine physical work varies when we laugh.

People are all the same, and we’re so always ready to create stereotypes. People are all so different, and we pay attention to these differences, we like them or we hate them, we play with them and make fun.

The 4th day is my day off. And, strangely, I do not feel as if my flesh and bones were thouroughly chewed and split out by the crowds of people visiting the fabulous château de Versailles.

I have a good feeling of my body, it is sound, ready to escape – finally! – into the fields. Val d’Oise is calling. It’s a perfect day with lucid air.

Acacias are in bloom.

One day of the sun and silence.

The next day we were told we didn’t work hard enough: instead of 50%, we distributed the audios to the 48% of the visitors during Easter and april. That’s why we won’t be paid our salary bonus which is about 200 euros. Bloody capitalism. It’s like bloody communism. Achieve the impossible with as less facilities as possible. Some colleagues think though that other colleagues are to blame: they did not try thaaat hard.

Night call

May 8, 2019, Wednesday

– Hi, I’m calling you ’cause I found your announcement on leboncoin.

– Hello, which one?

– Cleaning and other.

– There’s no “other”, and there’s no cleaning anymore. I have to delete the announcement.

– So, there’s no “other”? and there won’t be no “other”?

– No, Sir. Thank you.

– Ok, have a nice day.

– Have a nice evening.

 

 

 

 

Нечеловеческое

château de Versailles против всего человеческого. всего два wc – на входе и выходе (что там в садах – не знаю), куда в течение дня образуются чуточку менее длинные очереди, чем у входа перед открытием. после прохождения секьюрити отбираются все коляски и рюкзаки с едой. ходите с детьми на руках, голодные и жаждущие – даже воду нигде не раздобыть внутри шато, не говоря уже о легком недорогом перекусе. разве хлебать из-под крана в том же wc… перекус в самом шато может быть только класса люкс, в “Анжелине”. в садах ситуация другая, но раз покинув шато, обратно можно попасть, лишь повторно выстояв вон ту сумасшедшую очередь снаружи. коллега из Испании сказала, сюда приезжают “разделить момент удовольствия”, как бы не так! шато к вашим услугам, чтобы этого не произошло!

и вот эти вот аудиогиды. Orpheo поддерживает всего лишь 11 языков, при том что компания появилась в 1992. все шато виновато, якобы оно заказывает языки. уже в следующем году введут экскурсии на арабском! прогресс. множество голландцев хотят родной Dutch, румыны – румынский, сербы сербский, а хорваты хорватский, португальцам и полякам неожиданно повезло, греки не жалуются, терпят, в последнее время возрос спрос на иврит, однажды прозвучало пожелание – на иврите или арабском, сильвупле. тайский, тамильский, хинди, филипино… все это остается за пределами так сказать цивилизации

вчера было дефиле японцев. а позавчера – волнами чередовались китайцы и корейцы. незабываемое зрелище и ценное: кажется, я совсем близка к тому, чтобы их всех различать

Versailles. Easter

It’s stunning to see crowds of people waiting patiently in a long line for the audioguides in Versailles. The guides are “free of charge” or, rather, included in price of the Billet Château. Some know that, others don’t but follow those who know, yet others are informed by us on the spot and then stand in line. This is not the desire of knowledge but the power of money and of what is seemingly free.

One of the last days, our team distributed around 100 000 guides. The price of the ticket is 18 euros. Now count how much money gets the Château de Versailles during holidays. Don’t forget that the audioguides are distributed only to the 50% of the visitors or even less.

I worked there yesterday from 8.45 to 18.30. It was Easter, and all of us were dead by the end of the day. I think that before I was not really tired. Everything is relative.

The Chinese people want the guides especially bad – for the third reason: because their human Guide told them to take the guides, and they obey.

Seems like the Chinese suffer most of all from the cultural shock. After them the Russians come: the representatives of both nations look really disoriented and… wild. But they express the shock in different ways: the Chinese are afraid of getting lost, so they move around in big cohesive groups menacing to smash everything and everyone who is on their way. It’s a collective body with no individuals. The Russians are not that “collective”, but an overt astonishment and failure to communicate is often drawn on their faces.

chateau vers

Here are some of the less FAL (frequently asked languages): Dutch and Deutsch, Arabic, Romanian, Swedish, Breton, British, Hindi, Farsi, Hebrew (asked once only), cantonal Chinese…

  • In which language?
  • Breton.
  • British.
  • Dutch.
  • Deutsch.

Versailles. Suite 2

I’m losing my voice because I talk all the day long when I’m at the Château de Versailles. This Sunday there were toooo many people in the Palace. Today I think all the people who wanted to visit Notre Dame de Paris came to Versailles…

Versailles. Suite

I dare to copy and to paste here my text I posted yesterday on my facebook page in russian. I hope that the google translate or something else will help you to read it. Too lazy to translate it right now and I beg your pardon for that!

Image may contain: outdoor and water

самое занимательное в этой нынешней работе – что она голову совершенно не занимает, но зато язык это ужас, на целый день я – попугай, одни и те же фразы приходится повторять миллион раз, и слишком их варьировать не получается, потому что надо быстро, телеграфически, и понятно. так что язык к концу дня сильно путается как пьяный и извиняется. я и так не особо говорлива, но по возвращении домой рот без извинений захлопывается насовсем (на вечер)

нравятся китайцы. в предыдущем тексте я никоим образом не негативно о них, если кому почудилось. в основном это бабушки и дедушки, натрудившиеся в своей жизни, а может, и все еще. молодежь чаще всего уже холеная, упитанная, гладкая. лица у старичков морщинистые, сухие, похоже, всю жизнь пробывшие на солнце и ветрах. они перелетают с места на место стайками, не дай бог оторваться кому от всех!

есть греки, но редко. “а греческого нет?” – “нет. только я тут по-гречески.” – они хохочут: “прекрасно!”
и я веселюсь

пожилые кореянки выделяются из массы: они ухоженные, модные, похожи на черепах Тортилл – в круглых на поллица очках от солнца и шляпках, все одного фасона.

португальцев, бразильцев, испанцев еще не различаю, а их немало…

в общем, голова отдыхает и глазам не скучно

выдали, наконец, пропуск. по идее, теперь хоть сквозь стены ходи, но все мы в конце дня так устаем, что убегаем из Шато без оглядки, не оставаясь в нем ни секундой дольше) с пропуском могу, кажется, проводить одного-двух посетителей, так что велком до конца мая, кто тут